We are thrilled to welcome Emma Phillips to Acadian Ventures as our newest venture partner. Emma joins the firm from LocalGlobe where she was part of the founding team, initially as Operating Partner leading the firm's internal operations, portfolio operations, and network, before moving into an investment role.
We believe the best specialist venture firms won’t just understand their markets better, they’ll sit at the center of them. Acadian has spent years building deep domain expertise and connectivity across the founders, HR leaders, enterprise operators, and strategic platforms shaping how work gets rewired. That philosophy extends to how we’re building Acadian itself. Alongside Venture Partner Dave Clarke, founder and former CTO of Workday, Emma adds more than a decade of early-stage investing and firm-building, and deep relationships across the European founder and venture ecosystems.
We’ve worked alongside Emma for five years and seen firsthand the judgement, founder relationships, and network she brings. Her work includes supporting some of the world’s best founders in our market such as Pave, HiBob, Justworks, and Envoy. With Emma’s addition we strengthen Acadian’s ability to find exceptional founders earlier, help them with genuine domain insight, connect them to customers and strategic partners, and bring the right investors around the table as they scale.
Emma also aligns with Acadian’s social impact ethos. She is the co-founder of Meals for the NHS, a pandemic response effort by a group of volunteers and professionals from tech and logistics backgrounds that raised over £1.8 million and delivered more than 300,000 meals across 146 hospitals, supporting frontline workers and local food providers. She is the founder of Mum Wealth, a financial education platform helping UK families build wealth and create more choices for their lives, combining practical money guidance with insights from over a decade spent backing ambitious founders.
We are building the firm for founders shaping the new architecture of work. If that’s you, come and find us. Emma is based in London. You can connect with her on Linkedin and reach out here.